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Monday, 30 December 2013

In polish, Babka means grandmother. In New
York, Babka can be found in all of the Jewish bakeries, but not because that’s
where the grandmothers like to hang, oh nooo.

A Babka is also a buttery rich brioche like cake; it is marbled with
chocolate or cinnamon goo much like a pre cut log of cinnamon roll dough, and
then baked in a loaf pan. Traditionally it is topped with streusel but I opted
for a glace icing (made with double cream) that I flavoured with a few drops of
orange blossom water. Because chocolate and orange are two flavours that we
should marry together at-all-times.

I never visited a Jewish bakery during my
short-lived time in New York last week. Needless to say, I deeply regretted it
after I bit into the Babka and my mouth experienced all that crunch from the
crust and chew from the cake/bread hybrid.

Side note if you’re thinking about
visiting New York: Please do, it will make you feel like Deb Perelman, if only
for a couple of weeks. Also, there are the most amazing-ly (cheap) juicy
burgers at Five Guys and almond croissants at Dominique Ansel’s bakery (not so
cheap).

My brother in law bought me the New York Cult Recipes cookbook for Christmas and the Babka was one of the many
impressive creations within (New York cheesecake is next on the list, but I’m
afraid it’ll be too difficult not to destroy it with my mouth before taking
pictures). Nearly all of the ingredients used in the Babka can be found tucked
away in kitchen cupboards, which is one of the reasons why I chose it, whose
got time to run to the supermarket on Boxing Day slash ever?

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

There might be a white and dark chocolate
chip coconut cookie beneath that thick sheen of radiant gold. There might also be a fat free black-eyed pea chip
variation, and that stuff on top could be made of 24-carrot edible gold. Let’s
be serious though. It’s Christmas very soon and your friends and family wont
mind shitting out indigestible lustre dust. When there are homemade cookies
blurring their vision, the people will eat.

Wrap them up in real girth-y ribbon and
give these out as naked gifts, or, arrange them neatly on your super sweet Christmas town plate and share them with whoever walks through the front door. You should
probably call the entire neighbourhood over because this recipe will make 18
extra large cookies. Scale them down from 75g portion sizes to 35g and you could
easily feed 40.

I’ve only tested this recipe once, but I
can already vouch for it being one of my favourite cookies of all time. The
high quantity of brown sugar means they get softer with age. The coconut flakes
also lend a chewiness you’d find in a macaroon, pair that with the crunchy
exterior of any good chocolate chip cookie and you have yourself a recipe that
defeats the object of my Perfectly Rounded Chocolate Chip Cookie Post. You
might not believe it but, yes, you can have chewiness without a tablespoon of
corn flour.